5 things R. Kelly said in his explosive interview with Gayle King

Katey Psencik, kpsencik@gatehousemedia.com

Wednesday

Mar 6, 2019 at 9:28 AM

R&B singer R. Kelly, who has been accused of multiple instances of sexual and physical abuse, sat down with CBS' Gayle King for a nearly 80-minute interview in which the singer denied the allegations, saying he was "tired of all the lies" and that all his accusers are liars.

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse related to four alleged victims in the Chicago area, three of them underage. Other authorities in Illinois and New York are investigating Kelly as well, and he's been accused of sexual abuse in Atlanta, where one of his alleged "sex cults" is based.

"What kind of father, what kind of mother will sell their daughter to a man?"

In part of the interview, King questioned Kelly about his relationship with the two women who currently live with him, 23-year-old Jocelyn Savage and 21-year-old Azriel Clary. He claimed their parents "handed their daughters over" to him.

"I love em, and it's almost like they're my girlfriends. It's like, we have a relationship. It's real. It's real. And I know guys — like, I've known guys all my life that have five or six women, OK? So don't go there on me, OK? 'Cause that's the truth," he said.

Kelly, 52, also defended the age difference between him and the two women.

"I don't look at much younger than me. I just look at legal. I just look at, you're you, I'm me. Now, I don't know if you're married. I don't know. I don't know if you have a relationship. I don't know what you — you know, I don't know. But one might be older than the other. One might be younger than the other, OK? So I just look at legal, OK? People. There are older men that like younger women . . . there are younger women that like older men," he said.

Kelly said he met Savage when she was 19 and Clary when she was 17. He said he didn't have sex with Clary when she was 17, "although, her parents wanted me to."

Kelly then said Savage and Clary's parents sold their daughters to him.

"How come it was OK for me to see them until they wasn't getting no money from me?" Kelly said.

"I don't really know what a cult is. But I know I don't have one."

After Kelly called the allegations against him "lies," King asked which "lies" bothered him the most.

"All of them," he said. "[I've] got little girls trapped in the basement, helicopters over my house trying to rescue someone that doesn't need rescuing because they're not in my house, handcuffing people, starving people. I have a harem — what do you call it — a cult. I don't even really know what a cult is. But I know I don't have one."

"They was describing Lucifer. I'm not Lucifer. I'm a man. I make mistakes, but I'm not a devil, and by no means am I a monster."

"Lots of things wrong when it comes to women that I apologized, but I apologized in those relationships at the time that I was in the relationships, OK?"

"I didn't do this stuff. This is not me. I’m fighting for my f***ing life. Y'all [are] killing me with this s***."

At one point in the interview, King asked Kelly if he's ever "held anybody against their will."

"I don't need to," Kelly said. "Why would I? How stupid would it be for R. Kelly, with all I've been through in my way, way past, to hold somebody — let alone five, six, 50 you said — how stupid would I be to do that? That's stupid, guys."

King tried to stop Kelly as he began to raise his voice, but he kept going.

"Is this camera on me?" he asked King, who said it was. Then he turned to the camera: "That's stupid. Use your common sense. Forget the blogs. Forget how you feel about me. Hate me if you want to, love me if you want to. But just use your common sense."

He repeated some of the examples of the accusations against him, then he got emotional: "I didn't do this stuff. I'm fighting for my f***ing life. Y'all [are] killing me with this s***."

Then Kelly got up from his chair and began to yell into the camera. King's voiceover comes into the broadcast, saying they paused the interview to give Kelly a moment and his publicist helped him calm down.

Watch the emotional outburst:

R Kelly isn’t even talking to Gayle so much as he’s talking to the camera. He wants this interview to be another performance. He wasn’t ready for Gayle’s stellar and unflappable style.pic.twitter.com/jxYisuGT1N